The term P5 is a concept referring to the Permanent Five members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which is an international institution. The P5 consists of five sovereign states: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This privileged status originated in 1945 with the founding of the United Nations, when the UN Charter granted these five states a permanent seat on the Security Council. The original five were the major Allies and victors of World War II, and the system was created to maintain international peace and security.
The core mechanism of the P5 is the veto power, which allows any one of the five members to unilaterally block the adoption of any non-procedural resolution by the Security Council, regardless of the level of international support. According to Article 27.3 of the UN Charter, any substantive decision requires an affirmative vote of at least nine out of fifteen members, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members. The Security Council has a total of 15 members, with the remaining 10 non-permanent members elected by the UN General Assembly for two-year terms.
The composition of the P5 has seen two major changes since 1945, though the UN Charter's Article 23 has not been formally amended to reflect them. The seat originally held by the Republic of China was taken by the People's Republic of China in 1971, and the seat of the Soviet Union was assumed by the Russian Federation in 1991. The P5 concept is directly connected to the ongoing debate over UNSC reform, which India, along with the G4 nations (Brazil, Germany, and Japan), actively advocates for, seeking to gain a permanent seat to better reflect contemporary geopolitical realities. India has served eight terms as an elected non-permanent member, most recently in 2021–2022.